The Peon Pulpit Reviews The Graduate (1967)

So last night I watched the 1967 classic "The Graduate" staring Dustin Hoffman & Anne Bancroft. Overall, I'd give this movie a 5 out of 10. I fail to see why it was such a great American classic...but whatever.

One thing that did strike me as odd, is that what I thought happened in the movie, wasn't what other people thought. Of course, this isn't the first time this has happened to me. But happening with such a 'classic' makes me wonder if maybe I'm wearing those sun glasses from They Live or just simply deranged.

(SPOILER ALERT!)

My version of what happened was this: Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) has an affair with a much older married woman Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft). At some point in the film Benjamin asks Mrs. Robinson about how she got married to Mr. Robinson. It comes out that Mrs. Robinson was pregnant with her daughter Elaine (Katharine Ross), and that's why she got married. When Benjamin suggests he might go out with Elaine, Mrs. Robinson suddenly flips out and basically threatens Benjamin with death if he even contemplates going out with Elaine. The rest of the movie is basically Benjamin falling in love and Mrs. Robinson doing everything she can to stop it.

So why does Mrs. Robinson flip out at the idea of Benjamin dating Elaine? The IMDB gives two reasons, neither of which are mine.....and I think mine makes a LOT more sense.

The reason is that Elaine is Benjamin's half sister. It's clear that Benjamin's dad and Elaine's dad are business partners, and probably have known each other since college. Mrs. Robinson must have had an affair with Benjamin's dad, got pregnant and told Mr. Robinson that he was the father. Mrs. Robinson clearly knows the truth however, but can't let it come out now after all these years. This dark secret is so enormous that she's willing to tell her daughter about her affair with Ben, hastily arrange her daughter to be married to someone else and even claim to be raped by Ben.

And in my version...the very awkward bus ride at the end where Benjamin's smile turns to a blank stare, indicates that he had just started to figure it all out himself....

Swine Flu Pandemic - Added to the MMHOD

Swine flu pandemic has been added to the Mainstream Media Hall Of Doom!

Willis Carrier Inducted into the Hall of Greatness

For inventing air conditioning.

Peon Pulpit Predicts US Government Crackdown On Political Blog(s)

While my (very short) prediction track record has not been all that great.... The Pulpit is now predicting that a government agency will crack down on (and, at least temporarily, shut down) one or more well known political blogs within the next 2 years. The time range is long, but the prediction is that this will create a 1st Amendment 'crisis' in the US.

This predicted crack down will likely be done with the excuse that the blog(s) in question are in some vague manner inciting either violence or economic instability, but could be done under the guise of some other unforeseen criminal act.

Peon Pulpit's Hall Of Greatness

This is where the Peon Pulpit honors the great works. While many of the artists/works recognized here have been honored elsewhere for their greatness, a secondary focus of this area will be to honor those that have been maligned, under-rated, ignored or possibly even scorned unjustly.

Basically this is just an excuse to give 'props' to stuff and people I like.

And now, The Inductees (In No Particular Order):

MUSIC

• Hall & Oats - While they have a very strong portfolio of music from the '70's and '80's, their induction into the Hall Of Greatness can be justified on the strength of the song "She's Gone" alone. Wow...I love that song.
  
• The Carpenters - For their entire catalog of music.
• Skinny Puppy - For their entire catalog of music. And for stuff like this & this.
  
• White Zombie - Exclusively For La Sexorcisto. Certainly one of the greatest rock albums of all time.
• The Three Degrees - For the song "When Will I See You Again"
• Townes Van Zandt - For his entire catalog.
• Michael Martin Murphey - For the song "Wildfire"
• Rush - Do you really need to ask?
• Hector Berlioz - Entire Catalog of music.
• The Cure - Entire Catalog, but in particular the album Pornography
  
• XTC - Entire Catalog

 
FILM

• The Matrix - One of the greatest Sci-fi movies of all time
  

TELEVISION
INVENTORS

• Willis Carrier - For inventing modern air conditioning
  

BOOKS
FOOD

• Typhoo Tea

PRODUCTS

• 3M Command Strips
• RIM Blackberry
  

OTHER ARTISTS

• Bill Hicks (Comedy)
• Clarence John Laughlin (photography)
  

Started 01/02/2009

UN Says 'Social Unrest' Is A Possibility; GM Asks For Another $2.6 billion in subsidies

UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned that the economic crisis could lead to widespread social unrest. Is that a threat or a prediction? Hard to tell.

GM asked for $2.6 billion in 'low interest loans" (i.e., subsidies) in order to build Hybrids. Oh, so now you need money to build Hybrids?? This from the company that was going to bring us the all electric Chevy Volt (and the EV-1, which they quietly killed back in the 90's.....smart move!).

How much longer can the US subsidize domestic auto manufactures before someone complains to the WTO? Isn't this what free trade isn't all about? I'm sure the automakers are just the tip of the iceberg...

Obama Gets Tough With American Automakers

By giving them more money. What, is this a joke? He's going to cover their warranty costs for them by making sure everyone knows Uncle Sam has the warranty covered.

If the news wasn't so adamant about telling me that this was "tough love" and that "frustrated Americans" (and just how many Americans were surveyed for that article??) were happy he was getting tough, I might just think Obama just caved in.

And this startled me: "Fiat is prepared to transfer its cutting-edge technology to Chrysler," he said. Fiat? Maybe things have changed since my mom's Fiat X1/9 was built....one would hope.

Depression, Here We Come.....

There's only denial left now, at least, that's how I see it. In the last year, the DJIA has lost 46% of it's value (!) . Citibank has lost 95% of it's value. Bank of America has lost 90%. GE has lost 80%. Ford has lost 70%.

Here are my predictions for the year ahead:

Inflation (thanks to the nearly $3 trillion spending spree) is not far away and will be rampant. The low prices and great 'deals' that are to be had right now are going to end fast as competition diminishes due to manufactures leaving the market (bankruptcy, mainly), and production cutbacks by the ones who survive.

When inflation comes (likely within the next year), the housing market will lock up due to high mortgage rates (remember the 16% rates of the early 1980's? I think we'll be at least that high). The 1% of buyers who can make it through the lending requirements maze with their 20% cash down-payment will find that at a 15+% interest rate, even the 'cheapest' of homes is unaffordable. Many lenders will leave the market all together, as the uncertainty of inflation and judicial modifications of mortgage contracts makes the business just too risky. Homeowners are going to have to get used to staying in their homes for the next 25-30 years. They won't be happy.

Production cutbacks will lead to high unemployment rates. Foreclosures will dominate the real estate market (much more so than today). Pension funds and 401(k)s will be virtually zeroed out. States and local governments will struggle to make ends meet as property values nosedive.

A rise in crime and economic frustration will lead to civil strife. There will likely be riots worldwide as citizens vent their frustrations against the perceived 'elite' who got everyone into this mess (and who's tab we'll all be picking up).

In short, I predict a real depression is in our future. Right now, the economic pundits on CNBC and elsewhere are looking for a bottom to the market. 6 months ago they chortled at the thought of a severe recession. In the next 6 months, they will be using the 'd' word with regularity.

The Chinese Want To Cash In Their Chips

And buy up some distressed real estate. Who can blame them? Their dollars will be massively devalued shortly. Maybe they'll buy up some of our failing banks too (Bank of China anyone?)

Why The Stimulus Bill Won't Work

If the $800 billion stimulus bill passes, which is still debatable, it will have minimum impact at best. Why? Because unlike the 1930's when government spending would go into the pockets of American workers and American companies to build American infrastructure, any stimulus that is initiated by the US government today will almost immediately exit the country and end up in the hands of a foreign country.

For example, think about the Blue Ridge Parkway which was built during the Great Depression as a way of stimulating the economy. American companies were paid to build it, and Americans were paid to do the labor. The money that went to companies was used to purchase equipment and materials. These items were almost certainly manufactured by other American companies. Thus the stimulus money created jobs on the Parkway, and in the equipment manufacturing plant in Detroit, the shovel factory in Atlanta, etc. Those business hired people who got paid and thus kept the stimulus going. Workers purchased goods with their earned money that was almost certainly American made. Thus the stimulus flowed throughout the entire economy.

Now consider what will happen today. A stimulus package to build a bridge. It will be awarded to a foreign national company who will use it to create a few jobs in the US to build the bridge but the bulk of the money will exit the American economy and go back to the home country. The materials will be purchased from the Japanese and the Chinese and maybe the Koreans.

The workers will take their money and buy a Japanese car, or maybe a nice HDTV from China, etc.. Thus their money will help sustain a retail job in the US and then exit the American economy and stimulate the Chinese Japanese Or Korean economy.

Because America produces next to nothing in this country, we cannot spend our way out of this mess like we did in the 1930's.

What the American economy needs is incentive to produce things in this country that will be desired by other Americans and people in other countries. Not more products produced by American companies in China (like Apple's iPod) but true quality, American products produced by American workers

Wow...that almost sounds like a union advertisement. Maybe they were right after all.

Pelosi Says "We Don't Need Republican Support" For The Stimulus Bill

So I assume she's fine with the Democrats taking the blame when it doesn't work? Meanwhile, the public seems to be siding more and more with the Republicans, as support for the bill has slipped 12% in the last 3 weeks. Now only 51% think it's a good idea.

This is a huge gamble for the Democrats that's likely to be a loser. If the economy gets better, they win and the Republicans look stupid. If the economy gets worse, they'll have a tough time making the case that it would have worked if we had just thrown a few more Trillion $'s down the drain.

Unemployment skyrockets & the DOW jumps too?

Seriously. Do you need any more evidence that the government is
manipulating the DJIA and S&P 500 stock prices? Every time bad news
comes out, both indexes shoot higher. And why not? The Kremlin
controls the rest of the economy as well.

I'm Calling Aiko The Robot A Hoax

Everyone is covering this robot story now, it's even on CNN. But I'm going on record and calling this thing a hoax. The thing that really looks fake is when the Aiko's "creator" Le Trung holds up a sheet containing a hand-written algebra problem and the robot provides the answer.

Also the name AIKO apparently translates to "Love Child" (?).

Fake.

Why The Auto Bailout Should Die

This is an excellent article from Forbes showing why the automotive bailout is a huge con job.

Is Ghost Adventures A Big Joke?

I'm becoming more and more convinced that Ghost Adventures is a prank being played on the show's audience, in the style of Ghostwatch. It's just getting more and more ridiculous. Not like Paranormal State's brand of flaky pseudo-science ridiculousness, but a kind of self-conscious, leg-pulling ridiculousness. Tonight they played at least 1 "EVP" that was completely indecipherable. I mean it was just noise. It had subtitles underneath it to help you hear it, but it really was just noise. Then they also showed a photograph which looked completely normal, while presenting it as 'evidence' of shadow, which again was not detectable.

That's on top of the bizarre 'taunting' they have been doing on the last couple of episodes. Any time there's supposedly been a hanging, Zak Bagans brings in his own personal hangman's noose and carries it on his shoulder or throws it over a rafter (etc). Tonight's episode had the very bizarre (almost comical) moment where Zak locked one of his crew in a shower area of the Old Idaho Penitentiary where an inmate had been "gang-raped to death". They tauted the 'spirits' by offering up the crew member as a gift(!). Pretty freaking tasteless.

When will they pull the punchline?

The Black Friday Toys R Us Shooting: The Devil Is In The Details

Almost everyone has by now heard about the shooing on Black Friday at a California Toys R Us. What you may not have heard is that the shootings were apparently a murder-suicide. The evidence is piling up that there was only one shooter, Juan Meza, who after killing Alejandro Moreno, shot himself. Apparently there had been a long standing feud between the two families which led up to this confrontation.

The story gets very interesting when you learn about the criminal records of Moreno and Meza. Moreno apparently had been arrested for domestic assault in 1998. Meza, the alleged shooter, however had a much more lengthy criminal record including multiple arrests for gun possession (the latest one only 8 months ago), assault with a deadly weapon and drug possession. Yet Meza had never served any prison time.

How'd he manage that? The Moreno family's attorney, Mark Sullivan has a theory:

I suspect that Juan Meza was a criminal and an informant for the police. The reason I say that is because the judges who sentenced him on all these cases are not lenient judges. They're very tough sentencing judges here in Indio, as they all are. None of the judges nowadays tolerate weapons possessions, especially repeat offenders who have never been to prison a day in their life.

The Sheriff's department for their part had this to say:

"I'm not able to confirm that at all," -Herlinda Valenzuela, a Riverside County Sheriff's spokeswoman

Interesting.....

The Treasury Just Gave Away 1/2 Of Everything Produced In This Country Last Year

Wow. We're now up to $7.7 Trillion??? And to top it all off, much of this money is being given away in secrecy with no oversight.

The TARP program is in danger of becoming the largest financial fraud in history....

Here Come The Crashing Pension Plans

As I noted in my September 18th post, the collapsing pension plan will be the next big new story. Florida announced today that their public employee's pension plan has lost 1/4 of it's value. They say that's "pretty good considering". I bet they're telling the truth on that one too. Many corporate plans are already on the verge of collapse.

I suspect that in the next couple of months, we'll see a few of these pension plans' benefits completely frozen (if not wiped out). The big push will then be a push to fund these plans using taxpayer dollars.

So in essence, these plans represent a huge, unfunded, off-the-books liability for taxpayers that will soon be surfacing.

And you thought it was just going to be $700 billion...

DJIA Prediction: 0/1

Well, my DJIA prediction expires tomorrow...and since that's Saturday, I guess it's up today. The DJIA closed today at 8,497.31. On 10/16/2008 when I made the prediction it closed at 8,979.26.

That's only a 481.95 point loss for the last 30 days.

Truly, I'm at a loss. Could my predictive powers be so bad? Or is it perhaps that the government is manipulating the DJIA and the S&P 500 every time it looks like it's going to tank?

It does seem like every time the market makes some huge drop (like 11/13/2008's -554.11 drop) it makes a remarkable close up the next day (11/14/2008's 324.88 jump). Hmmm.

Could it be bargain hunters? Or could it be the Treasury/FED monster propping up the dead?

Either way, you heard it here first.

Fidel Castro Is Laughing At Us From His Death Bed....

All the years we've had that embargo against him for nationalizing all the 'capitalist' assets in Cuba.

And here we are doing it to ourselves. Soon, the Federal Government will own all the banks, the Washington Metro System, the auto industry, the airline industry, the hospitals....Ad nauseam Maybe Henry Paulson should bring in some of Castro's economics advisors. I bet they could give him some pointers.